The version of Vista 32bit that I now have is the "Upgrade" version. I used the install over itself trick to get a clean install. Will I be able to buy W7 64bit "Upgrade" when it's released in Oct and do the same with it? In other words, can I upgrade an upgrade?
I somehow doubt you can upgrade a 32-bit system to 64-bit. I could be wrong though.
I don't mean to actually upgrade, I intend on doing a clean install. I mean, will the version that I now have qualify me to purchase and use the upgrade version saving me big bucks.
As far as I know as long as the copy of vista is activated and otherwise legal you should have no issues using it as the basis of an upgrade to Windows 7.
However It is not possible to upgrade to 64 bit over a 32 bit system.
It may be possible to choose an upgrade option that creates a fresh 64 bit install on another partition but I cannot confirm this
When I bought Vista I bought the upgrade version. I installed it to a clean (formatted) drive by installing it and not entering the key or activating it. I then immediately turned around and installed it again as an upgrade install over itself. It is said that this will also be possible to do with W7
Sorry, I forgot about that one. In that case you make a good point and I have no idea if it will work with Win 7. Great question!
The way I understood things from vista was that due to technical considerations, (file locking), the 64 bit upgrade disks had to be installed from the DVD, (the running of setup.exe from within windows was not an option).
Once the setup was running it would check the presence of an activated, eligible, windows product, and then offer the in-place upgrade or a fresh install to a different partition.
Hopefully this will be the case with windows 7 but as the actual upgrade disks are not yet available this will have to be confirmed when they are.
The same of course applies to the double install method that was available for Vista
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